Obituary for Fr Matthew the Poor (1970)
Source: The Autobiography of Fr Matta Al-Miskin (2006), ii–iii.
Anba Mikhail, Metropolitan of Asyut, also served as the abbot of St Macarius’ monastery, which was the monastery where he had become a monk in 1939. For much of his service, however, he left day-to-day running of the monastery and its spiritual direction in the hands of Fr Matta al-Miskin. This obituary was originally published in an Egyptian newspaper, but is most readily accessible now as the foreword to Fr Matta’s autobiography.
Foreword by Anba Mikhail
Metropolitan of Assiut and Abbot of the Monastery of St Macarius (1936–2009, the date of his resignation from leadership of the monastery)
Fr Matta Al-Miskin
Born in 1919, he lived as a monk, a monastic, and an honourable ascetic until the eighty-seventh year of his earthly life. He departed to a blessed eternity on the morning of Thursday 8th of last June, after battling many bodily illnesses over the last ten years. From his childhood and his earliest conversations, he grew up with great love for his everlasting church, and was blessed with the gift of Christian writing. He was distinguished by his spiritual ways from his adolescence, and thus he grew, his eloquent expressions grew more refined and the content and concepts more exalted, which continued until the end.
— ii —
He felt in the depths of his being the sweetness of consecrating one’s life wholly to Christ the King. He blazed a monastic trail and became one of the very first educated persons, possessing higher degrees, to become attached to the monasteries, and many were discipled at his hands. After a long and difficult journey, this exemplary monk has proceeded to the heavenly kingdom one week after the Feast of the Divine Ascension, and before the Feast of Pentecost and the descent of the Holy Spirit, of whom he wrote a great deal non a number of occasions, and which was one of the chief topics of his meditations, which made him singular, and provoked much discussion and questioning, and also very much commented on. Nonetheless, no one can avoid mistakes or errors, even though his life on earth be a single day; as some put it, every learned man has an error.[1]li-kulli ‘ālim hafwa.
But for truth and history’s sake I say that Father Matta al-Miskin was a brilliant scholar, a turning point, a new level of writing and literary activity throughout the long period of his monastic life, and which continues to spread even after he had struggled and fought much, like a knight in battle hastening towards his longed-for target, borne up by the everlasting arms, passing on the message for whose sake he had laboured to the uttermost, placing it in the hands of Christ the Saviour who shall judge the living and the dead, who searches the depths of every man. And what is more trustworthy than his promise, which says: ‘Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work’ (Rev 22:12). Glory be to His holy name forever, amen.
— iii —
Notes:
| ↑1 | li-kulli ‘ālim hafwa. |
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How to cite this text (Chicago/Turabian):
Metropolitan Mikhail of Asyut. “Kalimat niyāfat Anbā Mīkha’īl muṭrān Asyūṭ wa ra’īs dayr Anbā Maqār” in Abūnā al-Qummuṣ Mattā al-Miskīn: al-sīra al-dhātiyya, 3rd edn. (Wadi al-Natrun: St Macarius Monastery, 2006): ii–iii. Translated by Samuel Kaldas in Archive of Contemporary Coptic Orthodox Theology. Sydney, NSW: St Cyril’s Coptic Orthodox Theological College. https://accot.stcyrils.edu.au/mmik-matta/.
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